A year ago, Heather Urbaniak was looking forward to a big senior season on the volleyball court and on the track at Slippery Rock High.

She led the Rockets' volleyball team in kills during her junior season as an outside hitter despite her diminutive height of 5-foot-6. She was banking on an even more menacing senior campaign at the net.

Then in a practice in July, Urbaniak leapt like she had a million times before and hit a thunderous spike like she had a millions times before.

Her landing, though, was unlike any before. Her left knee buckled.

She thought it was just a sprain, but the MRI revealed a much worse prognosis: Urbaniak had a complete tear of the ACL.

Her senior season on the volleyball court was over. Her senior track season was over as well.

Urbaniak feared an even bigger loss.

“I felt like any hope of playing college volleyball was over,” she said. “It was absolutely awful.”

As it turns out, it wasn't over.

Urbaniak worked hard to get her strength back and reinvented herself on the volleyball court this summer with Kellen Petrone, a coach with Pittsburgh Elite volleyball.

It culminated with a tryout for Indiana (Pa.) University coach Aline Scott.

After her tryout, Urbaniak was welcomed to the Crimson Hawks as a walk-on this fall.

“I was so nervous and she could tell,” Urbaniak said. “She said it probably wasn't my best performance, but that she saw how willing I was to work and how badly I wanted it. She said she thought I could be a good player for them.

“When she told me I could walk on, my mom and I both cried,” Urbaniak added. “Everything I worked for since the seventh grade and thought I would never have after the injury was coming true.”

Her work with Pittsburgh Elite was the key to her making the team, she said.

Petrone started a new program this summer that emphasized strength training mixed with volleyball training.

It was perfect for Urbaniak, who was finally healthy coming off her injury, but desperately needed both.

“Heather was one of the first people to sign up,” Petrone said. “I'd like to say I hit a magic button, but she was the person who made this happen.”

Petrone also set up the tryout with Scott.

“It's so amazing,” Urbaniak said. “A year ago I needed a machine to help me bend my leg. And now I'm here.”

Petrone said Urbaniak is an example of how his new program can work.

“We were extremely proud of Heather,” Petrone said. “Heather is extremely athletic and a good jumper. She has a potential to be a very good player for IUP.

“To see what she was able to accomplish in two short months,” Petrone added. “That's really what coaching is all about.”

Urbaniak had a presence on the bench for the volleyball team last fall, even though she said it was “absolutely horrible” to have to watch instead of play.

Her teammates voted her a co-captain.

During the track season, she was made an assistant coach.

Before the injury, Urbaniak was excited about building on her breakthrough junior season as a hurdler for the Rockets.

She ran a county-best time of 15.16 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles, which was just .10 seconds off the record set by Slippery Rock High Hall of Famer Melissa Sopher, and advanced to the PIAA meet in 2013.

She was already receiving track and field interest from Division I schools.

Volleyball, though, was always No. 1 in her heart and Urbaniak wanted to play that sport in college.

She just didn't know where.

After the injury, she had her mind set on IUP to pursue a nursing degree. She will study to be an anesthesiologist at the school starting this fall.

Most of all, though, she is just happy she can be a volleyball player again.

“This injury changed my life in so many ways,” Urbaniak said. “Even tiny things like walking, I appreciate now. I got an appreciation for what coaches go through. I just appreciate everything so much more now.”